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Curriculum Cabinet F or Jon Billing, 32, a largely self-taught furniture maker in Brooklyn with a background in guitar building and sculpture, each new piece of furniture is another step in his education, another opportunity to explore ne materials, new techniques, new textures and patter He built the case of this recent wall cabinet with sassafras, and discovered that when planed, the wood is “a real pleasure er ne ues, r s h ed e to work, with a nearly intoxicating aroma.” For the sliding doors, another first: He created pleated panels, filling the frames with rows of unglued pyramidal into ulpture, p slats. When it came to the drawers, to contrast the many straight lines in the piece, he decided on round, recessed finger pulls. Ever inventive, rather than er in drill the and drilling the pulls he mounted the drawer fronts on the lathe and turned them; and while he had them there, why not dome the drawer fronts? ter covering the convex fronts with subtle chiseled facets, he took one more shot in the dark, ebonizing the cabinet’s maple doors and he h dom te fron face in th cabi drawers with Japanese sumi ink to give them a smoky, charcoal color. Some people teach as they learn. ers with Japanese sumi —Jonathan Binzen How They Did It Turn to p. 86 to see how Billing made his cabinet’s pulls, drawer fronts, and door panels. Photos: Jon Billing